The Hitler Conspiracies

The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination

By: Richard J. Evans

Narrated by: Leighton Pugh

Brought to you by Penguin.

The renowned historian of the Third Reich takes on the conspiracy theories surrounding Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, in a vital history book for the 'post-truth' age.

The idea that nothing happens by chance in history, that nothing is quite what it seems to be at first sight, that everything is the result of the secret machinations of malign groups of people manipulating everything from behind the scenes - these notions are as old as history itself. But conspiracy theories are becoming more popular and more widespread in the 21st century. Nowhere have they become more obvious than in revisionist accounts of the history of the Third Reich. Long-discredited conspiracy theories have taken on a new lease of life, given credence by claims of freshly discovered evidence and novel angles of investigation.

In The Hitler Conspiracies renowned historian Richard Evans takes five widely discussed claims involving Hitler and the Nazis and subjects them to forensic scrutiny: that the Jews were conspiring to undermine civilisation, as outlined in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that the German army was 'stabbed in the back' by socialists and Jews in 1918, that the Nazis burned down the Reichstag in order to seize power, that Rudolf Hess' flight to the UK in 1941 was sanctioned by Hitler and conveyed peace terms suppressed by Churchill and that Hitler escaped the bunker in 1945 and fled to South America. In doing so, it teases out some surprising features that these, and other conspiracy theories, have in common.

This is a history book, but it is a history book for the age of 'post-truth' and 'alternative facts': a book for our own troubled times.

©2020 Richard J. Evans (P)2020 Penguin Audio

An entertaining review of Hitler conspiracies.

A perfectly read version of Richard J Evans' "The Hitler Conspiracies". If you're looking for a single volume that neatly outlines the cases for the most common Hitler conspiracies, then dismantles those cases quickly and effectively, this is the book you're looking for.

This is a book that will, obviously, be a good read/listen for anyone who has an interest in the Third Reich and/or Hitler, but it will also be valuable to anyone with a wider interest in conspiracy theories, critical thinking, and cognitive biases.

The patterns found in Hitler conspiracies are distressingly common in other conspiracies as well. Evans does a great job in both summarising the specific errors of each Hitler conspiracy, but he also draws out more general insights into the conspiratorial mindsets.

My one niggling minor negative comment is that even though Evans rightly critiques those that attack a claim by attacking the claimant via "guilt by association", he nevertheless comes pretty close to doing the same thing himself at times, often conflating conspiracies about Hitler with admiration for Hitler. He does make a distinction on this topic, once or twice, but I think he could have made it much clearer. Yes, a lot of Hitler conspiracies are clearly pro-Hitler, or at least they have lazy romantic notions about the Nazi leader, but I think there are plenty of Hitler conspiracies out there that are not in any way based on admiration for the man. They're still nonsense, but they aren't pro-Hitler nonsense.

But that's a very minor complaint about an excellent book. Give it a read/listen, it's entertaining and would be a great starting point if you have someone in your life that is considering or flirting with believing in any of these debunked Hitler conspiracies.